Tagged: The Jayhawks

2012 is shaping up to be a great year to start a tour in Colorado. Longtime alt-country stalwarts The Jayhawks have been on hiatus since 2005. Now they're back with a new album and tour.

Since getting together in Minneapolis in 1985, The Jayhawks' members have ranked among the most lauded figures in alternative country, having perfected their bar-band style with years of touring and inspiration from Gram Parsons, The Louvin Brothers, Tim Hardin and Bob Dylan.

In 1992, the album Hollywood Town Hall launched the career of the Minnesota band The Jayhawks, making it a seminal force in the burgeoning sound known as alt-country. Co-founders Mark Olson and Gary Louris found their harmonies and their songwriting styles fit together like few others, and The Jayhawks toured relentlessly — so much so that it took them three years to follow up that hit album with a new one.

I still remember when I heard the Minneapolis band The Jayhawks' 1992 album Hollywood Town Hall for the first time. It was so fresh, yet so familiar at the same time, that I stopped dead in my tracks and declared it my favorite album of that year.